Emile and the Field

A child forms an intimate connection to a field throughout the changing seasons in this distinctive dual children's debut from poet Young and artist Ebinama. The story opens amid views of a densely flower-filled field in spring, brown-skinned Emile at its center. Light-infused landscapes proceed to show Emile and his black dog wandering the field, following a bee ("The bumblebees would sing/ to him, never sting"), and then--as time passes--romping among rust-colored autumn leaves and orange grasses. When winter brings snow, Emile despairs of sledders "and other, loud kids/ who rode the face/ of the field without/ Emile's say-so," but the experience provides an opportunity for reflection: "if we share.../ and learn to take care, / it means the field/ will be here/ forever." Young's distinguished poetic lines and Ebinama's gauzy watercolor and ink paintings offer a gentle vision of nature as meaningfully accessible and ample. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)

K-Gr 3--Brown-skinned, short-haired Emile and his little black dog glory play in a wide field full of flowers and bees. Emile inspects a grasshopper among some daffodils, follows a bee, and hugs a maple tree beginning to drop its multicolored leaves--but he isn't so sure about winter, when the field is covered in snow and other children come to sled and play. His father explains that "if we share...and learn to take care..." the field will remain for all to enjoy. Emile, in a red winter coat, then makes a snow angel, recalling Peter in Ezra Jack Keats's The Snowy Day. Ebinama's lovely, delicate watercolor-and-ink illustrations show the field in different seasons and times of day, and a spectacular night sky with fireflies, moon, and stars, making full use of the spectrum a landscape provides. There is a lyricism to the text, though it doesn't adhere to a rhyme scheme; together, story and pictures are an old-fashioned celebration of nature. VERDICT Like Kenard Pak's tenderly illustrated books that take on seasons (his own Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall and Cathy Camper's Ten Ways to Hear Snow), this book shows a deep appreciation for nature, and an acceptance of cyclical change; it will reward the introspective reader.--Jenny Arch